Just a couple of years ago, the Atlanta Braves were cruising through the NL East. That version of the Braves was a perennial contender. The 2025 Braves is more like a high-end sports car with all the right parts but an engine that just won’t turn over.
Injuries have chewed through this roster two years in a row, and now the team is 16 games under .500, sitting 12 back in the Wild Card race. For a club with Chris Sale, Spencer Strider, Ronald Acuña Jr., Matt Olson, Austin Riley, Raisel Iglesias, Ozzie Albies, Jurickson Profar, and Marcell Ozuna — a lineup card that reads like an All-Star program — the fact they’re this far gone is staggering.
No Top-50 Talent, At Least For 2025
ESPN’s latest Top 50 players list for this season? Not a single Brave made the cut. That’s not a permanent talent judgment as Acuña, Sale, Olson, and others have the resumes. It’s a hard reflection of how poor the production’s been in 2025. Between injuries and slumps, the “core” hasn’t been anywhere near elite.
Add in the fact that MLB Pipeline doesn’t have a single Braves prospect in its top 50 — with only one, Single-A pitcher Cam Caminiti, cracking the top 100 — and the long-term picture looks shaky. Caminiti is 19. He’s not coming to rescue the big club anytime soon.
The Braves Crossroads
Alex Anthopoulos isn’t pressing the rebuild button. He didn’t sell at the deadline and insists there’s no teardown coming. But something’s got to give. Acuña has had two major knee injuries. Sale’s not getting younger. Half the rotation is coming off Tommy John. Health and “everything breaking right” can’t be the foundation of your plan forever.
Right now, the Braves are caught between a bleak present and a middling future. They could be competitive in 2026 — if the roster stays healthy, if the bats bounce back, if the rotation holds. But two years of “ifs” is starting to look like a trend, and unless this core can rediscover its dominance, Anthopoulos may end up staring down the one thing he’s sworn to avoid: a full-on reset.
